HADIBANDHU RAUTARAO Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners are medical graduates who took the MBBS degree in the year 1978 from medical colleges in the State of orissa. In the year 1979 they underwent a one year period of internship at the medical colleges from which they had graduated. The petitioners allege that thereafter, having passed the pertinent examination for recruitment to the Resident House Staff, they completed the one year term of appointment either in the Willingdon Hospital. New Delhi, or in the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Chandigarh. Upon the conclusion of their term on the Resident House Staff by the end of the year 1980, the petitioners contend that they became entitled to admission to a post-graduate course at a medical college in orissa. The duration of that course, according to the petitioners, is two years. The grievance of the petitioners is that the medical colleges in the State of orissa have now put into force a different scheme, under which it has become necessary for candidates seeking admission to a post-graduate course to appear at an examination for such admission after completing the Resident House Staff appointment. The petitioners urge that they are not obliged to appear at any such examination and are entitled as of right to admission in the post- graduate course.

(2.) It appears that until the academic session 1978-79 the post-graduate course was envisaged as a course of three years' duration. which period included an appointment for one year on the Resident House Staff. Admission to the three year course was made through an entrance examination, and after completing the Resident House Staff appointment there was no further examination for admission to the post-graduate course. The scheme was changed with effect from the session 1978-79, purportedly to give effect to the recommendation of the Indian Medical council that the Resident House Staff course should be delinked from the post-graduate course. Accordingly, two separate prospectuses were envisaged, one for the Resident House Staff course and the other for the post-graduate course. A competitive examination was held for recruitment to the Resident House Staff, and all candidates who had passed the final MBBS examination and had completed their Compulsory Rotating Internship and had obtained full registration were eligible to appear at that competitive examination. There was a separate entrance examination for admission to the post-graduate course. A candidate appearing thereat should have passed the final MBBS examination, satisfactorily completed the internship. acquired full registration and in addition should have completed the Resident House Staff term in a subject during one year. It appears that in some subjects, where there was a dearth of candidates and the posts in the colleges were not being filled in, it was convenient to prescribe onlyone examination, the entrance examination for recruitment to the Resident House Staff, and in those subjects the second entrance examination specifically intended for the post-graduate course was not prescribed. The students in those subjects, on completing the one year Resident House Staff appointment, were automatically admitted to the post-graduate course.

(3.) These changes evidently caused considerable dismay among those medical graduates who had already taken the MBBS degree from a medical college in orissa and had embarked on a course of conduct, consistent with the terms of the original scheme, which would suffice to secure them admission to a post-graduate course in the medical colleges of orissa. The petitioners say that under the original scheme they were entitled to take the entrance examination for recruitment to the Resident House Staff at any recognised institution in the country, even though it lay outside the State of orissa, and on completing that course they were entitled without more to admission to a post-graduate medical course in a medical college in orissa. There were also students who had taken the examination for recruitment to the Resident House Staff in a medical college in orissa and had successfully completed that course, and they objected to the requirement envisaged by the new scheme that they should appear for a separate entrance examination for admission to a post-graduate course in the medical colleges of the State. This discontent among the medical graduate body led to litigation in the High court of orissa. Eight medical graduates, who had taken the MBBS degree at a medical college in orissa, had completed the period of internship and thereafter had also completed a period of one year on the Resident House Staff in medical colleges in orissa, filed a writ petition, Dr Sidhartha Das v. State of Orissa challenging the validity of the requirement in the prospectus for the year 1978-79 requiring candidates for admission to a post-graduate course in certain subjects to appear at an entrance examination for that purpose. On 5/03/1981, the High court allowed the writ petition and directed the respondents to permit those petitioners to enter upon the relevant post-graduate course without any further entrance examination. In compliance with the judgment and order of the High court all the eight petitioners were admitted to the post- graduate course desired by them.